She and I Volume I Part 18

"_I_ won't, Shuffler," I answered; "take care that _you_ don't!"

"I'll take my davy, sir, as how it shan't cross my lips again," he replied in a convincing tone.

"Very well, Shuffler," I replied, turning away from him. "Only keep to that, and it will be best for you. Good day!"

"Good day, sir; and you won't come to the auction along o' me?"

"No," said I. "I can't spare the time to-day. I'll try and come to- morrow, if that will do as well."

I did not wish to be angry with him; for, after all, I had brought the bitter information he conveyed entirely upon myself. He was only repeating what was, probably, already the gossip of the whole suburb.

Besides, he really had mentioned no names:--the allusion to Min, had been as much my suggestion as his; so, I tried to be affable with him before we parted. "I'll try and come to-morrow, Shuffler, if that will do as well, to look at the things you want me," I said, more cordially than I had previously spoken to him.

"All right, sir," he replied, all beaming once more, with _the_ eye as jovial as ever. "That'll suit me jest as well, sir; and I'm very much obleeged, too, I'm sure."

He, thereupon and then, waddled off on his mission of beating down opposition brokers; while I paced along sadly, thinking about the news I had just heard.

I was going to call on Lady Dasher, who would be able to confirm it, or settle that it was a mere idle report; consequently, I would not have to remain long in suspense.

I would soon know the truth, one way or the other.

Prior, however, to my reaching this haven of rumour, I met little Miss Pimpernell. She was trotting along, with a basket on her arm, according to her usual wont when district visiting.

"Hi! Frank," she exclaimed, on seeing me. "What is the matter with you now? Why, my dear boy, you've got a face as long as my arm, and look the picture of misery!"

"Oh, I've just heard something that surprised me," I said. "I've been told that Mr Mawley is going to get married."

"Well, that's news to me," she said. "I haven't heard it before. But what if he _is_ going to be married--are you so sorry on his account, or for the lady?" she continued, in a bantering tone--she always liked a bit of a joke--"I never thought you took such an interest in Mr Mawley!"

"I'm sure I don't know," I said. "It has surprised me, that's all."

"_So_ it has me, Frank," said she. "Who told you?"

"I don't know whether I ought to tell, Miss Pimpernell," I replied, hesitatingly. "It was disclosed to me in confidence, and--"

"No matter, no matter, my clear boy," said the old lady briskly. "Then you ought _not_ to tell me. But, at the same time, Frank, I don't believe a word of it! If Mr Mawley had been meditating anything of the sort, _I_ would have been his first confidante! I don't think there's a word of truth in it, Frank, no matter who your informant was. I daresay the rumour has got about just because he has taken a house, which he can very well afford, having got tired of living in lodgings; and small blame to him, say I! He's no more going to get married than _I_ am, Frank; and I do not believe that likely, do you?"

She laughed cheerily, tapping me on the cheek with her glove.

She was always petting and caressing me; and, I believe, considered me a sort of big baby exclusively her own property.

"But his taking a house looks suspicious," I said, willing to be more convinced.

"Not a bit of it," said Miss Pimpernell, st.u.r.dily. "Why, if Monsieur Parole d'Honneur took a house, would that be any reason for _his_ getting married? Ah, I know, Frank, who has put all this nonsense in your head! It is that gossiping old Shuffler. I'll give him a lecture when I next catch him," and she shook her fist comically in the air, to the intense wonderment of Miss Spight, who was crossing the road.

"But, mind, I didn't tell you so, Miss Pimpernell. Don't tell him that I repeated what he said?"

"Stuff and nonsense," she said. "Why, he'll tell everybody he meets the news in confidence, just the same as he did you. I'll give him a good wigging, I tell you! Mr Mawley is not going to be married in a hurry; and if he is, not to the young person you think, Master Frank."

"I did not mention anybody, Miss Pimpernell," I said, in confusion; for, her keen black eyes seemed to penetrate into my very heart, and search out my secret fears.

She looked very sagacious.

"Ah! Frank, you did not _say_ anything; but your looks betrayed you.

So _that's_ the reason why the report of the curate's marriage affected you so, is it? But you needn't blush, my dear boy! You need not blus.h.!.+

_I_ will not tell tales out of school; so you may set your mind at rest. It is not, however, as you think, Frank. Cheer up; and good-bye, my dear boy. I must be trotting off now, or my poor blind woman will think I'm never coming to read to her."

And off she went, leaving me much happier than old Shuffler had done.

Confound him! What did he mean, with his c.o.c.k-and-a-bull story?

On reaching Lady Dasher's house, however, the house-agent's rumour was, to my great distress, confirmed; and, that in the most authoritative manner.

It must be true then, in spite of Miss Pimpernell's denial!

My lady was in one of her most morbid and melancholy moods, too, which did not help to mend matters.

I praised her fuchsias on entering; but even this homage to her favourite hobby failed to rouse her.

She had heard that Mrs Clyde had some of the most beautiful pelargonia; and what were _her_ paltry flowers in comparison?

Alas! she was poor, and could only afford a few miserable fuchsias to decorate her drawing-room--or rather the better to exhibit its poverty!

If her poor, dear papa had been alive, things of course would have been very different; and she could have had petunias, or orchids, or any of the rarest hot-house flowers she pleased; but, now, she was poor, although proud, and could not afford them like that rich parvenue.

How, good things always seemed given to those who are above their need!

There was Mrs Clyde getting her only daughter engaged to be married also, she heard; while no suitor came forward for _her_ two poor orphan girls!

Such was the staple of her conversation--enlivening, at any rate.

"Oh, ma!" exclaimed Bessie Dasher at this juncture; "you should not say so to Mr Lorton! He'll think you wish him to propose at once!" and both she and her sister burst out laughing at the idea.

"So I would," said I, jokingly, notwithstanding that I felt as melancholy and little inclined for raillery as their mother, whose words seemed to clinch what old Shuffler had said. "So I would, too, if there weren't a pair of you, and bigamy contrary to law. 'How happy could I be with either, were t'other dear charmer away.' But," I continued, turning to Lady Dasher, with an a.s.sumption of easy indifference which I found it hard to counterfeit under the searching glances of the two wild Irish girls, her daughters, "is it really true what you said just now about Mrs Clyde's daughter, Lady Dasher?"

"Yes, Mr Lorton," she replied, "to the best of my belief it is; for, I have heard, on the most unimpeachable authority, that she is engaged to Mr Mawley. He is always going there, you know."

"But that is no proof, ma," said Bessie Dasher, who, as I have hinted before, was suspected of a slight tenderness towards the curate. "Mr Mawley is always coming here, too!"

"True, my dear," said her mother; "still there are comings and comings.

You may depend he only goes there so often _for a purpose_! Indeed, I asked Mrs Clyde whether there was not something in it only yesterday, and she smiled and said nothing; and, if _that_ isn't proof," she concluded, triumphantly, "I don't know _what_ is!"

Bessie remained silent, but her sister said impulsively, "I don't believe it, ma--not what you say, but about Minnie Clyde's engagement.

Mr Mawley's going there proves nothing, as Bessie said; and, as for Mrs Clyde, I believe she would smile in that graceful way of hers--I hate fine people!--and say nothing if you told her that her house was on fire! The curate is always gadding about, and Minnie is a pretty girl; so, of course, he likes to go there and see her; but, I know, that she does not care twopence for him."

"Ah, you may say so, my dear; but _I_ know better. She would jump to have him. All girls like handsome young clergymen, as I know to my cost. Ah, Mr Lorton," went on Lady Dasher, with a sad expressive shake of her head, "marriage is a sad lottery, a sad lottery! I once thought of marrying into the church, too, when my poor dear papa was alive.

Perhaps it would have been a happier lot for me if I had done so! He was such a dear, nice clergyman, and looked so well in his canonicals-- such a truly evangelical minister! I could listen to his sermons for hours without feeling the slightest fatigue!"

"Thank goodness, then, he wasn't our papa!" exclaimed the saucy Seraphine. "I'm certain that _I_ wouldn't have been able to listen to his sermons so long!"